BioProject

The T-cell leukemia homeobox 1 (TLX1, HOX11) transcription factor is critically involved in the multistep pathogenesis of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and often cooperates with NOTCH1 activation during malignant T-cell transformation. More...

The T-cell leukemia homeobox 1 (TLX1, HOX11) transcription factor is critically involved in the multistep pathogenesis of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and often cooperates with NOTCH1 activation during malignant T-cell transformation. However, the exact molecular mechanisms by which these T-cell specific oncogenes cooperate during transformation remain to be established. Here, we used an integrative genomics approach to show that the oncogenic properties of TLX1 are mediated by genome-wide interference with the ETS1 and RUNX1 transcription factors. Partial disruption of ETS1 and RUNX1 activity by ectopic TLX1 expression in immature thymocytes drives repression of T-cell specific super-enhancers and mediates an unexpected transcriptional antagonism with NOTCH1 signaling. These phenomena coordinately trigger a TLX1 driven pre-leukemic phenotype in human thymic precursor cells, which corresponds with the in vivo thymic regression observed in murine TLX1 tumor models, and creates a strong genetic pressure for acquiring activating NOTCH1 mutations as a prerequisite for full leukemic transformation. In conclusion, our results uncover a functional antagonism between cooperative oncogenes during the earliest phases of tumor development and provide novel insights in the multistep pathogenesis of TLX1 driven human leukemia. Overall design: Gene expression was measured in the ALL-SIL T-ALL cell line after treatment with DMSO (solvent control) or GSI (γ-Secretase Inhibitor). Cells were collected 48h after treatment. This was performed for 3 replicates. Less...